Holiday Reviews: Samantha's Party Dress (2016) & Samantha's Holiday Set (2014)

Holiday Set.

Party Dress. 

Samantha went on sale at Costco for $119.99 for a modified version of her Holiday Set, and her Holiday Coat Set back in November. Basically, for the price of a doll, you get a doll and two outfits. Not bad. This is how and why I got my Samantha.

On Cyber Monday this year, the limited edition Holiday Set from 2014 went on sale, which was the version I wanted originally. I just got it for Christmas.

Girl of the Year Reviews: Lea Clark (2016): Lea's Celebration Outfit

Cecilia Alvaros: Making Lea's clothes look better than she ever did.

Lea Clark. AG's worst attempt at ethnicity. Her movie's racist, AG blocked someone on Youtube (thedollrookie) for pointing out their misrepresentation of Brazil, and they think they can get away with it all by making Lea 1/8 Brazilian and barely the color of cooked oatmeal. Oh, and she also looks a lot like McKenna, so her snark name is TropiKenna. However, I like some stuff in her collection, including her celebration dress. I got it for Cecilia, who's half Brazilian.

A note before we get started: AG labels this as as dress that "reminds Lea of the traditional white dresses that some Brazilian women wear." As Nethilia of American Girl Outsider pointed out, it's actually based on the dresses that Afro-Brazilian women who practice Candomble wear. Don't be afraid of culture, AG.

All of these are phone pics because I lost the cable for my camera.¹

Shark's Free Thoughts: AG Moddie Meet Outfits (1995-2015)

Welcome to a brand new column of this blog: Shark's Free Thoughts¹. Here I will talk about...literally anything. While this blog has been mostly dolls, with the title of the blog, it could morph into anything fandom related and it would be fine. To kick this off, I'm gonna talk about AG, but I'll probably diverge into other stuff soon enough.

The American Girl of Today/Just Like You/My American Girl/Truly Me/Line of a Thousand Names line has been around for 21 years. In the fandom they're sometimes called moddies, so we don't have to delve into all the names. The pattern of meet outfits for the most part is every 2 years getting a new outfit, to keep up with trends.²

This is an overview of all the meet outfits, plus some commentary on the trends they reflect. I thought of this post while in the shower.

(All images taken from here.)

Photostory: Pretty Princess 'Mantha

I haven't blogged much here. Sorry about that. I'm mostly on Instagram and AGC for doll things, and I don't really have the time to sit down and write reviews of things/write photostories. But I did have time today, so I whipped this up real quick. These were all snapped with my phone since I lost the card reader for my camera.

I only do photostories for debuts. Maybe I should change that.

Photostory: There's Another Person in This House!

I went to the Scottsdale store last week. Someone came back with me.

Historical Reviews: Sidekicks: Ivy's Meet Outfit and Accessories (2007)

70s groovy pants~

I like to think my last review was good, but I don't honestly know. So please, gimme feedback. We writers thrive on it.

Today I'm going to review Ivy's meet set. If you don't understand what I mean by meet, you can read about it here. I don't feel like explaining something that's already typed up nicely. Also, I've decided on a rule for my reviews. If there's a set I have that Neth has reviewed, I won't review it, because she's really good at writing nice, honest, detailed reviews, not just "omg this is basically a product overview and i loves it allll" but actually pointing out what's wrong with things. I try to review like that, but I'm still starting. 

She wore a rasberry beret~

Beret: I like to go top to bottom, and I'm doing the accessories too, so let's start with the beret¹. It's a rasperry colored felt beret. Not much to talk about.

Hats off.

Tag it all up.

 It's kind of hard to get on and still make her hair look good, but that's the only negative. I like hats. B-.

Now in necklace.

Coin: And, according to book canon, Ivy carries around a Chinese coin for good luck. I truned mine into a necklace so I wouldn't lose it as easily. And going off of the superpower thing I said with Kaya, Ivy gets levitation.

Other side.

The other side is less detailed. Research shows that I can't find an exact match for it. However, I did find two that were pretty close:





If anyone know what coin it's actually supposed to be, that would be great! Coin gets a B. It's cute, it makes a nice necklace, but I'm skeptical about its accuracy.

Earrings.

Earrings: Ivy comes with standard AG piercings, which limits versatility, but earrings are cool so I can't complain too much. Ivy herself comes with just the gold studs, and the accessories come with the drops.

I really like earrings. Especially dangles. And hoops. Mmmm, hoops. While I like silver slightly better than gold, these are really nice, although the dangles sometimes get stuck on the middle of the posts and it doesn't work out. A.

Bag it.

 Purse: And because every girl needs a purse for carrying things, Ivy has a purse made to look like it was upcycled from jeans. A very 70s thing to do. It also has patches: a pink flower, a rainbow with a cloud slightly under and to the right, a striped square, and a rectangle cut from the same material as the strap, which is greenish yellow with red polka dots. There's also two little pockets and three belt loops that further push the "these were once jeans" look. This would've been the back side of the jeans.

Butt pockets!

On the other side is a pocket made of the same material as the strap and the little rectangle on the other side. There's also two more belt loops on this side. The only thing that I don't like is that there's no sign of a fly. Oh, and there's also fringe on the bottom. Think cut-off shorts.

There's also a little part sewn on the side, kind of like a pocket for a pencil. So, I tried to fit one in there. It worked, but not nicely.

I think I'm clever.

And because why not, I compared the purse to my only blue AG brand jeans: the ones from the Parade Set from the year of Chipotle Mayo. The bag is, in fact, smaller, so it helps with the "this was made out of old too small jeans" thing. The bag's also a little lighter than the pants.

The other side.

The other side. Notice the real pants don't have butt pockets. Ha!

Meet me inside!²

The inside's pretty boring. A.

Watermelon, pizza³.

Shirt: Time for clothes. Ivy's shirt is a basic long sleeved shirt with a cowl neck collar. It has a pink and green diamond print all over itself, with some flowers on top of the diamonds in places. The fabric feels like polyester.

Cowl.

I like cowl neck things.

Basic sleeves.

Velcroes up the back, like everything does. (With the exception of, like, two things in AG history.) A.

Lookin fly~

Pants: Ivy wears green corduroy pants with two rows of yellow top stitching going down the middles of the legs. 

Pockets.

Instead of just elastic waistband or something, there's a velcro fly. Realism! No button though. I don't know how to describe the pockets, except that they're not standard pockets, and they're not real.

REAL PANTS DON'T DO THAT.

But, there's also elastic in the back. Weird.

Feets⁴

Simple hem. B+.

Boots!

And for footgear, cuz everyone needs shoes, we get tan boots. I really like these.

There are four rows of embroidery on the tops, and a row in the middle with diamonds.

Velcro up the back, because easily putting on shoes is fun.

Textured sole. A.

And, to end with a butt joke⁵, we've got lime green chones.⁶  They're basic, with elastic around the waist and leg holes. There's a rainbow graphic in the middle, that is the exact same as the patch on the purse. B. Good underwear.

--Shark

¹ When I was little I thought it was pronounced like barrette. I quickly fixed my mistake.
² HAMILTON.
³ So many band jokes.
⁴ One of my friends thinks it's weird that AGs have flat feet. Well, maybe it is.
⁵ End!
⁶ I hate the word panties. No one in my family uses it; we say chones instead. California, yo.

Off-Brand Reviews: Our Generation Retro: Dream On Outfit

Going back, Kaya style.

So. I haven't blogged much here. I don't really blog, I'm more of a "Instagram random things and lurk on AGC" person when it comes to my dolls. But, I've decided to try my hand at reviewing, so here it is, my first ever review!

I got this outfit several weeks ago at Target, because for me it invokes some 80s feels. I like this for 3 reasons:

1. I love the 80s. Love. It's one of my favorite decades, actually. And even though I didn't live them, it doesn't mean I don't love them any less.
2. I am currently in the process of writing the meet book of my 80s girl, Pilar Yañez. So this will go to her when she exists in doll form.
3. My Kaya wears clothes from all the eras. She's a time traveler.

When I first saw this outfit, I thought, Love!! Mostly the vest. (Marty McFly, anyone?) I'm actually kind of mad at the outfit from the waist down, but in love with the part of it from the waist up. You'll see why.

Hey kid! What's with the life preserver?

Vest: Let's start with my favorite part of the outfit, the vest. It's a reddish-orange vest made to simulate a down vest, very similar to that of Marty McFly from Back to the Future.¹ The rows of topstitching help with the "down" look. I love this vest so much! While I personally don't wear vests for the sake of keeping warm, because I believe in keeping your arms warm too, I like doll vests.

Back.

The topstitching doesn't carry over to the back. Real vests have the stitching on the back too, so this makes it look a little less accurate.

Tag.

There's also an OG tag on the left inside. It's kinda big, but it doesn't interfere with wear, so it's alright. A-. Minus for no topstitching on the back.

Necklaces.

Before we move onto the shirt, I want to talk about Kaya's necklaces. She wears her "meet" necklace almost all the time, and an angel feather one I made for her. All of my dolls have some sort of necklace with a pendant. The symbols are all unique, and they give the wearers magical powers.² Kaya gets time travel, which is also partially why she wears clothes from all the eras.

It's a shirt.

Shirt: The shirt is a basic cream-colored t-shirt. The material is very soft.

Happy sun~

There's a rainbow graphic on it with clouds and a smiling sun peeking out from behind it. The area of the fabric around the graphic is rougher than the rest of the shirt.

Skleeve.

 The sleeves and collar have purple trim sewn on.

Rep your brand.³

 There's an OG tag on the bottom left side of the shirt.

Hem.

Basic hem, nothing to smile about.

Nice, clean velcro,

It velcroes up the back, like most doll clothes do. B. It's a nice shirt.

And this is where it got weird.

 Pants: Before I describe the pants, I have one thing to say. THEY DON'T FIT.

This is as far as I got.

SAGGING ISN'T COOL WHY DON'T THESE PANTS FIT

Even Kaya wants to know.

"Why?"

I kept the tag.

I'm thinking they just don't fit AG girls. Or my pants are fucked up.

Hey look it's a completely worthless piece of fabric shaped like pants!

Anyways. Just 'cause they don't fit don't mean I'm not gonna talk about them still. They're made of blue corduroy, and even though they're too small, they're well made.

Not fly. Not fly at all.

There's topstitching pretending to be a fly which I really don't like. If you're gonna do pants, either put a real fly, or do a more reliable elastic waist and don't even try to fly. None of this mess.

Loop for the belt.

They have an elastic waist, a pink belt, and belt loops. That detail is nice, even if fake fly and no pockets and BAD FIT HURB DURB.

Hemmings~

Simple hem. Also a little bit of flare, which makes me think this outfit was supposed to be 70s and not 80s.

I don't like the material the belt's made out of either.

The belt is sewn in as part of the waistband, so you need to do some major taking apart if you want it to come off. D. Well constructed, bad fit.

Now on actual 70s girls.

ETA, 2/22/16: It does too fit. I put it on Ivy and it's fine, although I was scared the elastic would snap. It required a lot of pulling, but it fit.

See?

Yeah they're fine. I just didn't want to pull them on. And I don't even really like corduroy anyways, so these probably won't even get worn that often.

Plastic Shoezzles.

Shoes: I have to admit it: I've been spoiled by AG shoes. These shoes don't compare. They're made completely of plastic (whatever happened to dolls being like little people?) and even though they're kind of a Mary Jane style, they have no buckles or anything. They just slip right on. Luckily these don't have an fitting issues.

Sideview.

From the side you can see the molding tha makes them look "Mary Jane."

Sole.

The soles have a slight heel, but are otherwise completely smooth.

Our Generation. By Battat.

On the inside of both shoes, there's a stamp that reads "Our Generation. By Battat." I bumped the contrast up a little on the picture, so you can kind of see it. It's hard to read in real life too. C. They're not realistic, but they work.

Overall Opinion: I don't usually buy off brand things for my gang, unless it's something that's not even supposed to be for dolls anyways, like a keychain. But when you goes to Target and see an OG outfit you wanted, you buy it. Even though it's supposed to be 70s, I bought it for my 80s girl and Kaya, who wears everything anyways. The vest will become part of a Marty McFly cosplay in the future; the shirt is nice enough and can be for the mods, Ivy, or Pilar; the pants can suck my dick, and the shoes might get some use.

Cost Value: The only reason I bought this was for the vest, to be honest. I got it for $13, full price. That's cheaper than AG outfit, but With the pants being completely useless, it was not worth all that. Boo. If you can find the vest on eBay, get that. Maybe the shirt too. But don't buy direct. $10-15 for shirt and vest.

Authenticity: For the 70s? Vest is good, rainbows were really popular, the pants could have more flare, but no one was wearing all plastic shoes. For the 80s? The shirt can kinda slide, andhe vest is perfect, with Back to the Future and all. The pants aren't skinny enough, though, and once again, forget the shoes.

Final Grade: B. Everything is well constructed (except the shoes what the hell is that), and works nicely for my purposes. Fuck you, pants.

Reviewing is fun. I'll do more soon.

--Shark

¹ Back to the Future is one of my favorite movies ever. I first watched it when I was about 5, and wow was it cool. It was one of the many things that spawned my love of the 80s.
  ² So many stopmotions I want to do.
  ³ Y'all should totally check out Nethilia's blog, AG Outsider! Very good.